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Did Black Sitcoms peak in the 90s?

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W

Warxard

Banned
Fresh Prince, Wayans Bros, Martin, Jamie Foxx Show, Steve Harvey Show, Family Matters And of course Living Single. All of these debuted in the 90s and there are a bunch more. there's even bad ones like Malcolm and Eddie. The output from stations like The WB for black TV shows was pretty staggering.

But of course you have some incredible black shows in the 00s like Bernie Mac and Girlfriends and in the 70s like What's Happening and Good Times

How do you feel about black sitcoms? Did they reach the apex in the 90s? What's your favorite one?
 
A

Affeinvasion

Member
This is entirely anecdotal, but I feel like some of the shows you listed had wider audiences than some of the shows do today. But did they have more than Facts of Life, or the Cosby Show, (shows from before the 90s?). I don't know.
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Did the 90's have Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia? Then no!

Edit: Totally Misread the title. Puts on Dunce Cap and sits in corner

Double Edit: Lethal Weapon 5 and 6 were pretty good though.
 
B

Bad_Boy

time to take my meds
Betty said:
Boy this is mostly how I feel.

Fresh Prince was my fav and even though it's not the same as other sitcoms Kenan and Kel was amazing.
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Fresh prince was god tier.

Family matters, living single, and martin were my favs as well.

Kenan and kel and my brother and me were great as a teenager.
 
V

Valhelm

contribute something
It's really shitty how much worse black representation is in the 2010s compared to back then. From what I can tell, the rise of focus group testing made it possible for TV stations to know what most of the people wanted most of the time. Because TV audiences are predominately white, programming started to look like them.

Blackish is a really good show, but the amount of new African American programming is way lower than it should be. Because cable TV is increasingly focusing on niche markets, I think we're beginning to see a small renaissance in black television. Scandal and Empire are huge, and I'm pretty excited for Don Glover's Atlanta.

massoluk said:
The entire Sitcoms thingy peaked in the 90s.
Click to expand...

Maybe in popularity. Casual TV audiences shifted to reality programming in the early 2000s, but I think most of the really good sitcoms were made after the 90s -- Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm, 30 Rock, It's Always Sunny...
 
A

ArgyleReptile

Banned
HStallion said:
Did the 90's have Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia? Then no!
Click to expand...

Warxard said:
How do you feel about black sitcoms?
Click to expand...

???

latest
 
V

Violence Jack

Member
I feel like they did. Living Single, Martin, Steve Harvey, Family Matters, Wayans Bros, Hanging with Mr. Cooper, Malcolm & Eddie, Roc, My Brother and Me, and Fresh Prince of Bel Air were all great shows and nothing I can think of has been able to compare since they went away.
 
K

kirblar

Member
Affeinvasion said:
This is entirely anecdotal, but I feel like some of the shows you listed had wider audiences than some of the shows do today. But did they have more than Facts of Life, or the Cosby Show, (shows from before the 90s?). I don't know.
Click to expand...
In the '00s hyperfocused demo targeting became huge.
 
Grizzlyjin

Grizzlyjin

Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
Pretty much. Plus you had shows from the 80s like The Cosby Show and A Different World leaking into the early 90s. UPN and The WB found their niche in the mid to late 90s and pushed out a lot of Black sitcoms. It's weird to think about it, but every network was doing it back then. Fox had Living Single, ABC had Hanging with Mr. Cooper, NBC had The Cosby Show and Fresh Prince, CBS even had Cosby later on.

We got Black-ish right now, which is good. But it hasn't blown up like those other shows did.

I'm always amazed by how relevant Fresh Prince has stayed thanks to syndication. I know I wasn't watching sitcoms from the 1970s when I was growing up, but all ages know about Fresh Prince these days and the show ended 20 years ago.
 
T

Team Filler

Member
I think part of it is that classic sitcoms were much bigger in the 90's than they are now. While I do love me some Fresh Prince and the occasional Martin rerun still, I usually find myself much more engaged by stuff like Bernie Mac, Everybody Hates Chris, and now Black-ish.

I think another part that contributes is that television dramas have improved so much in quality since then that people are often devoting their free time to those instead.
 
B

bootsthecat

Banned
I thought the CW (or was it WB?) took the torch and ran with it once the major networks bailed. Sister Sister I think was one of the ones that jumped over and it went from there.

You reminded me of Roc, I really liked Charles S Dutton
 
Grizzlyjin

Grizzlyjin

Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
bootsthecat said:
I thought the CW (or was it WB?) took the torch and ran with it once the major networks bailed. Sister Sister I think was one of the ones that jumped over and it went from there.

You reminded me of Roc, I really liked Charles S Dutton
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think Sister, Sister started on ABC and eventually got cancelled and then The WB saved it. Stayed on for awhile too, I stopped watching by that point. The WB also had The Parent Hood (which I found corny as fuck but whatever) and Smart Guy. I remember when it was just Black sitcoms, teen dramas, and Buffy lol.

Call me crazy, but I think Disney has sorta picked up the torch recently. I think they cast more Black leads in their original shows than a lot of the other networks. They haven't been doing many shows where the majority of the cast is Black recently, but they used to.
 
S

SpecX

Member
The did for me at least. I remember watching Family Matters on TGIF, Kenan and Kel on Snick, Martin was always hilarious, watched Living Single, In Living Color, Fresh Prince, Sister Sister, Homeboys in Outer Space (yeah I enjoyed the theme song!). Now I find too much reality tv on and don't bother trying to see what's new out there. I do enjoy the reruns when they come on TV One though.
 
S

SeanC

Member
Yep, sitcoms were all the rage then and there was a lot of them. Diverse ones too. I mean, they're sitcoms so most of the writing was all the same in that "wait for punchlines" schtick, but you had a lot of races and lifestyles well represented and some willing to deal with bigger issues beyond just jokes.

Edit: To be specific: multi-cam sitcoms.
 
Iorv3th

Iorv3th

Member
Grizzlyjin said:
Yeah, I think Sister, Sister started on ABC and eventually got cancelled and then The WB saved it. Stayed on for awhile too, I stopped watching by that point. The WB also had The Parent Hood (which I found corny as fuck but whatever) and Smart Guy. I remember when it was just Black sitcoms, teen dramas, and Buffy lol.

Call me crazy, but I think Disney has sorta picked up the torch recently. I think they cast more Black leads in their original shows than a lot of the other networks. They haven't been doing many shows where the majority of the cast is Black recently, but they used to.
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking of but couldn't remember the name. Thanks.

Wasn't there a wayans brothers sitcom also?
 
B

bootsthecat

Banned
Grizzlyjin said:
Call me crazy, but I think Disney has sorta picked up the torch recently. I think they cast more Black leads in their original shows than a lot of the other networks. They haven't been doing many shows where the majority of the cast is Black recently, but they used to.
Click to expand...

I haven't seen Disney in forever, could be.

The juggernaut that is Tyler Perry certainly did his part in the 2000s, though. I never watched any of his sitcoms, but from what I recall, plenty did. Not sure if he still has any TV shows now.
 
B

bootsthecat

Banned
Anyone remember South Central? Fox advertised it to hell and back, and it ended up lasting 1 season. Love Larenz Tate, the best o-dog there ever was.
 
F

freeofgreed

Member
Yep, they definitely did OP. Those shows you posted pretty much raised me. I'd say TV overall is at it's peak right now. But in terms of black content, the 90s were something else...
 
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